Deep within the womb of a distant star, astronomers may have glimpsed the earliest known stages of planet formation. Researchers using data from ALMA (the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) discovered a bright clump of gas and dust 400 light-years from Earth. The team suggests this clump could be a nascent protoplanet forming from the material falling onto the central protostar.

If the team's interpretation is correct, this would be the earliest stage of planet formation ever directly imaged, and the youngest proto-gas-giant exoplanet ever found. Previous studies have revealed more developed giant exoplanets in older systems.

The object resides within the HL Tauri protoplanetary disk—a known stellar nursery about the size of our own Solar System. The protostar HL Tauri is surrounded by a vast disk of material that the protostar is drawing in to feed its growth. Part of this infalling material forms the bright clump, which is 18 times the mass of Earth.

The new observations reveal the clump is moving in an unusually elongated orbit. This suggests that a planet orbiting the protostar may be tugging gravitationally on the clump via a complex choreography. In the proposed scenario, the planet acts as a shepherd for the clump, guiding its motion within the disk and helping it to grow further.

To confirm their hypothesis and determine the exact nature of the observed clump, the team is looking to follow up with higher resolution observations from ALMA. Deeper observations will also probe into the chemical composition of the clump and reveal new details about its structure.

This research offers a glimpse into the complex and dynamic nature of planet formation, providing valuable insights into a process that is essential for the assembly of planetary systems.